Set not in London but in the fictional Coketown, Charles Dickens' 1854 novel is an indictment of harsh working conditions in an industrial mill town, and of a prevalent philosophy of the time that insisted that all education be concerned with facts and figures. Mr. Gradgrind, the founder of Coketown's educational system, nearly brings his own daughter to ruin by his teachings. Like the other titles in this series of affordable classics, this book has been reset in fresh type. It includes a frontispiece illustration and a brief biography of the author.